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John Philips
'' '''John Philips' (30 December 1676 - 15 February 1709) was an 18th-century English poet. Life Overview Philips, the son of an archdeacon of Salop, was educated at Oxford. His Splendid Shilling, a burlesque in Miltonic blank verse, still lives, and Cyder, his chief work, an imitation of Virgil's Georgics, has some fine descriptive passages. Philips was also employed by Harley to write verses on Blenheim as a counterblast to Addison's Campaign. He died at 33 of consumption.John William Cousin, "Philips, John," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 301. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 18, 2018. Youth and education Philips was born on 30 December 1676 at Bampton, Oxfordshire. His grandfather, Stephen Philips, a devoted royalist, was canon-residentiary of Hereford Cathedral and vicar of Lugwardine, where he died in 1667. His father, Stephen Philips, D.D. (1638–1684), became in 1669 archdeacon of Shropshire and vicar of Bampton, in succession to Thomas Cook, B.D., whose only daughter and heiress, Mary, he had married.Aitken, 175. John Philips, who seems to have been the fourth of six sons, was at first taught by his father, but he was elected a scholar of Winchester in 1691 . At school Philips became a proficient classical scholar, and was treated with special indulgence on account of his personal popularity and delicate health. He had long hair, and he liked, when the others were at play, to retire to his room and read Milton while someone combed his hair.Aitken, 176. In 1697 he proceeded to Oxford, matriculating at Christ Church on 16 Aug. There he was under Dean Aldrich, and the simplicity of his manners and his poetic gifts made him a general favourite. It had been intended that he should become a physician, and he acquired some knowledge of science, but his devotion to literature led to the abandonment of the design. Edmund Smith was his greatest college friend, and William Brome of Withington, whose family had intermarried with Philips's, was also a close friend. Philips appears to have been in love with Mary, daughter of John Meare, D.D., the principal of Brasenose College, who, as a Herefordshire man, had made the young student welcome at his house. This lady, who was accomplished and beautiful, was also a flirt, and was believed to have been married secretly; in any case, Philips seems never to have gone beyond hinting at his passion in his verse. Career Philips, according to the testimony of all who knew him, was amiable, patient in illness, and vivacious in the society of intimate friends. His poems, written in revolt against the heroic couplet, between the death of John Dryden and the appearance of Alexander Pope, occupy an important position in the history of English literature. As author of Cyder, Philips was a forerunner of Thomson in his love of nature and country life. Philips was loth to publish his verses. His "Splendid Shilling" was included, without his consent, in a Collection of Poems published by David Brown and Benjamin Tooke in 1701; and on the appearance of another false copy early in 1705, Philips printed a correct folio edition in February of that year. The most important result of the production of this poem was that Philips was introduced to Harley and St. John, and was employed to write verses upon the battle of Blenheim, which were intended as the tory counterpart to Addison's Campaign. Early in January 1707–8 Fenton published, in his Oxford and Cambridge Miscellany Poems, a short "Bacchanial Song" by Philips. On 24 Jan. following Fenton wrote to Thomas Warton: "I am glad to hear Mr. Philips will publish his Pomona. Who prints it? I should be mightily obliged to you if you could get me a copy of his verses against Blackmore. … I'll never imitate Milton more till the author of Blenheim be forgotten." The first book of Cyder, to which Fenton alluded, had been written while Philips was at Oxford; and on 27 Nov. 1707 Jacob Tonson had entered into an agreement with Philips to pay forty guineas for it in two books, with ten guineas for a second edition. There were to be one hundred large-paper copies, and two dedication copies bound in leather. Philips gave a receipt for the forty guineas on 24 Jan. 1707–8, and the poem was published on the 29th (Daily Courant). It called forth, in May, a folio pamphlet, Wine, the first poem published by John Gay, in which Cyder is spoken of somewhat disparagingly. In a coarse attack, Milton's sublimity asserted … by Philo-Milton (1709), Cyder is spoken of as an "idolised piece."Aitken, 177. Philips also contemplated a poem on the ‘Last Day,’ but his health grew worse, and, after a visit to Bath, he died at his mother's house, at Hereford, of consumption and asthma, on 15 Feb. 1708–9. Writing "The Splendid Shilling," which Addison called "the finest burlesque poem in the British language," was "an imitation of Milton," and in playful mock-heroic strains depicted — perhaps for the benefit of his impecunious friend Edmund Smith — the miseries of a debtor, in fear of duns, who no longer had a shilling in his purse wherewith to buy tobacco, wine, food, or clothes. "The merit of such performances," says Samuel Johnson, "begins and ends with the first author." Blenheim, a poem, inscribed to the Right Honourable Robert Harley, Esq. (1705), has little interest for the reader of today; at the end Philips says that it was in the sweet solitude of St. John's "rural seat" that he "presumed to sing Britannic trophies, inexpert of war, with mean attempt." The piece imitates Milton's verse, and the warfare resembles that of The Iliad or Aenid. In the following year (1706) Cerealia: An imitation of Milton, was published by Thomas Bennet, the bookseller who issued Blenheim; and though it was not included in the early editions of Philips's works, there can be no doubt that it is by him. Cyder, the most important of Philips's productions, was written in imitation of Virgil's Georgics, and an exact account of the culture of the apple-tree and of the manufacture of cider is varied by compliments to various friends and patrons, and by many local allusions to Herefordshire, the county of Philips's ancestors, where Withington was specially famous for cider. Philip Miller, the botanist, told Johnson that ‘there were many books written on the same subject in prose which do not contain so much truth as that poem.’ But Johnson objected, not without reason, that the blank verse of Milton, which Philips imitated, could not "be sustained by images which at most can rise only to elegance." And Pope said that Philips succeeded extremely well in his imitation of Paradise Lost, but was quite wrong in endeavouring to imitate it on such a subject. In ‘Cyder,’ as in nearly everything he wrote, Philips celebrated "Nature's choice gift," tobacco, a fashion for which had been set at Oxford by Aldrich's example. Of Philips's minor productions, a clever Latin "Ode ad Henricum S. John," written in acknowledgment of a present of wine and tobacco, was translated by Thomas Newcomb. Recognition Philips's mother placed a stone over his grave in the north transept of Hereford Cathedral, with an inscription said to be by Anthony Alsop of Christ Church (Hearne, Collections, ed. Doble, iii. 370). When the present pavement was laid down, a small brass plate in the floor was provided by subscription, a bunch of apples being engraved on it. Philips's mother died on 11 Oct. 1715, and her son Stephen erected a marble slab to her memory. A monument in his memory was erected by Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey.John Philips, People, History, Westminster Abbey. Web, July 12, 2016. The long epitaph was commonly attributed to Robert Freind, though Johnson, on hearsay evidence, credited Atterbury with the authorship. Crull said the lines were by Smalridge, and there is a well-known story that the words Uni in hoc laudis genere Miltono secundus were obliterated by order of Sprat, who was then dean, but were restored four years later by Atterbury, who did not feel the same horror at Milton's name appearing in the abbey. An examination of the monument, however, reveals no indication that the words were at any time interpolated. In February 1710 Edmund Smith printed a "Poem to the Memory of Mr. John Philips," which was reprinted in Lintot's Miscellaneous Poems and Translations (1712). Leonard Welsted, too, published in 1710 "A Poem to the Memory of the Incomparable Mr. Philips," with a dedication to St. John. Tickell, in his Oxford (1707), had already compared Philips with Milton, saying he "equals the poet, and excels the man." Thomson praised him with more discretion. An edition of Philips's Poems, with a "Life" by George Sewell, was brought out by Curll in 1715; each part of the volume has a separate register and pagination. There was another edition in 1720, and a third in 1763. In some copies Cyder is a reprint, while in others it is the 1708 edition bound up with the other pieces. Il Sidro, translated into Tuscan by Count L. Magalotti, appeared in 1749; and an edition of Cyder, with very full notes by Charles Dunster, illustrative of local allusions and of Philips's imitations of earlier writers, was published in 1791. Thomas Tyrwhitt translated the "Splendid Shilling" into Latin. A painting of Philips, by Riley, is in the library at Nuneham-Courtenay ; and there are engravings, after Sir Godfrey Kneller, by M. Vandergucht in Philips's Poems (1715), and by T. Cook in Bell's Poets (1782). There is also a folio engraving, by Vandergucht, in an oval frame; and a portrait, from a painting in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Lilly, is given in Duncumb's ‘Hereford’ (vol. ii.). Publications *''The Sylvan Dream; or, The mourning muse''. London: Joseph Turner, Sheffield, 1701. *''The Splendid Shilling: An imitation of Milton''. London: B. Bragg, 1705. *''Blenheim: A poem''. London: Thomas. Bennet, 1705; London: H. Hills, 1709.. *''Cerealia: An imitation of Milton''. London: Thomas Bennett, 1706. *''Honoratissimo viro Henrico Saint John, armigero: Ode''. London: J. Bowyer, 1707. *''Ode Gratulatoria ... Willielmo Cowper''. London: Tim. Child, 1707. *''A Modern Latin Ode; attempted in English''. London: J. Morphew, 1707. *''Cyder: A poem, in two books''. London: H. Hills, 1708. *''Poems'' (edited by George Sewell). London: E. Curll, 1712, 1715, . *''Poems on Several Occasions''. London: J. Tonson / E. Curll / T. Jauncy, 1720. *''The Whole Works''. London: J. Tonson / T. Jauncy, 1720. *''Poems Attempted in the Style of Milton''. London: E. Curll, 1744. *''Poetical Works''. Edinburgh: Apollo Press, by the Martins, 1782. *''Poetical Works''. London: Joseph Wenman, 1786. *''Poems'' (edited by M.G. Lloyd Thomas). Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1927. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:John Phillips, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Sep. 4, 222016. See also * List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Sep. 4, 2016. Notes External links ;Poems * Selected poetry of John Philips (1676-1709) (3 poems) at Representative Poetry Online. * An Imitation of Milton Splendid Shilling at English Poetry 1579-1830 ;About *John Philips at Westminster Abbey * John Philips at NNDB * John Philips at English Poetry, 1579-1830 *The Spectator Group: John Philips; Broome and Fenton; Edmund (“Rag”) Smith; Hughes in the Cambridge History of English and American Literature. * Philips, John Category:English poets Category:1676 births Category:1709 deaths Category:People from Bampton, Oxfordshire Category:Old Wykehamists Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:18th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Poets who died before 35